1 BRADGATE PARK Childhood Home of Lady Jane Grey JoanJoan Stevenson Stevenson AnthonyAnthony Squires Squires Second Edition: Fully revised and expanded KAIROS PRESS Newtown Linford Leicestershire 1999 books from KAIROSKAIROS PRESSPRESS to Home Page 2 Copyright © Joan Stevenson and Anthony Squires 1994, 1999 ISBN 1 871344 23 9 First edition (ISBN 1-971344-02-6) 1994 Second edition, 1999 Design and layout by Robin Stevenson, Kairos Press. Body text in Aldine 721 BT 10.5 pt. Imagesetting by Qualitype, Leicester. Printed in Great Britain by Norwood Press, Anstey, Leicester. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. KAIROS PRESS 552 Bradgate Road Newtown Linford Leicestershire, LE6 0HB Front cover: Exploring around the ruins of Bradgate House. 3 CONTENTS 1. Bradgate: A Medieval Deer Park . 7 2. The Rise of the Greys . 13 3. The Building of Bradgate House . 17 4. The Development of the Park . 27 5. The Greys in Tudor Times . 35 6. After Lady Jane . 43 7. The Decay of Bradgate House . 50 8. The Parting of the Ways . 68 9. A Self-Guided Walk Through Bradgate . 77 Further Reading . 82 Acknowledgements & Index . 83 4 List of Illustrations Aerial photograph, Bradgate from the north . 6 Old John Tower . 52 Aerial photograph of part of Groby Manor . 7 Engraving of the ruins, dated 1793 . 53 Granite blocks along Little Matlock gorge . 8 One of Bradgate’s dry stone walls . 54 Slumb Breccia, brittle rocks near the War Memorial . 9 Old John at the beginning of the 20th century . 55 Swithland Slate outcrops near the Hallgates entrance 9 Queen Adelaide’s Oak, beside the ruins . 55 The moat, built to defend the parker’s house . 11 Fallow deer at Bradgate . 57 Groby Manor . 13 The ruins in a late 19th century photograph . 58 Cropston Reservoir in 1988, drained of water . 14 Aerial photograph showing Bradgate’s spinneys . 59 A section of the park pale in Elder Spinney . 15 The new Bradgate House at Steward’s Hay . 60 Profile of the park pale exposed by the River Lyn . 16 The water meadow, and site of the sluice gates . 61 The ruins of Bradgate House, from the west . 19 Exotic trees in Little Matlock . 62 Inside the ruins – view across the great hall . 20 Engraving of the ruins, from 1793 . 63 Aerial view of the ruins, from the south . 22 19th C. water-coloured engraving of Little Matlock 65 Bradgate House at the time of Lady Jane Grey 24 & 25 Cropston Reservoir . 66 Drawing of Bradgate by Leonard Knyff, c.1700 . 26 A waterfall at Little Matlock . 67 The park pale where it crosses the deer sanctuary . 28 An early postcard of the ruins . 68 Old postcard showing the leat, and site of the dam . 29 A photograph of the ruins, with the gable end intact 69 The leat as it runs towards the ruins . 30 The War Memorial . 70 Site of the watermill . 30 Kitty Brown . 71 Aerial view of Bradgate House and gardens . 31 Marion’s Cottage, where Kitty Brown was born . 71 View of the formal gardens through the east gateway 32 The Mystery Ditches from the east . 72 Detail from Kiddiar’s map of Bradgate, from 1746 . 33 The Mystery Ditches looking towards Hallgates . 72 Part of the 17th century garden canal . 34 Charles Bennion, benefactor . 73 South view of the House on its completion . 37 The Wishing Stone . 73 Lady Jane Grey, a 19th century engraving . 38 Old John from Old John Spinney . 74 The ruins – Lady Jane’s Tower . 39 View across the park from the spring near the ruins 75 Pollarded oak trees at Bradgate . 41 A misty day on Old John Hill . 76 An ancient pollarded oak at Bradgate . 42 A frosty morning in Little Matlock . 77 Bradgate House at the time of Lady Jane Grey . 45 A peacock in the ruins . 78 The Great Hall, and 17th century bay window . 47 Red deer at Bradgate . 78 The hall, with its bay window, seen from the north . 48 Old John Spinney and the War Memorial . 80 Enville Hall, Staffordshire . 51 Old John from Sliding Stone Spinney . 81 Dunham Massey, Cheshire . 51 Little Matlock in summer . 84 5 Maps, Diagrams, and Feature Boxes Bradgate Park and the Manor of Groby . 7 Rocks in Bradgate . 8-9 Map showing the phases of development of Bradgate Park . 10 The Village of Bradgate . 14 Brick-making . 18 Bradgate House, feature box and sketch plan . 23 Where Was the Entrance to Bradgate House? . 24 Chronology of Bradgate House . 25 The Bradgate of John Leland . 27 The Line of Succession to the crown, on the accession of Edward VI . 36 Grey Family Tree: Part one – the Claim to the Throne . 37 Bradgate’s Ancient Oaks . 42 Grey Family Tree: Part two – After Lady Jane . 45 Rabbits . 49 Enville Hall and Dunham Massey . 51 From the Diary of Viscount Torrington . 53 The Walls of Bradgate . 54 The Deer . 56-57 The Spinneys of Bradgate . 59 The Water Meadow . 61 Grey Family Tree: Part three – The End of the Earldom . 63 Cropston Reservoir . 66 Grey Family Tree: Part four – The Bradgate Inheritance . 69 Kitty Brown Remembers . 71 Bradgate’s Mystery Ditches . 72 Bradgate Park as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) . 75-76 Map showing the features in the self-guided walk through Bradgate Park . 79 A Hill Walk . 80 A Circular Route . 81 6 7 1. BRADGATE: A MEDIEVAL DEER PARK When William the Conquerer came to England in 1066, he handed over large Bradgate Park and the Manor of Groby tracts of the country to his friends. Hugh de Grentmesnil, who was granted much of Leicestershire, was lucky to survive the Battle of Hastings. His horse broke its bridle rein while leaping over a bush and bolted towards the enemy. The sight of English defenders charging forwards with raised hatchets, though, caused it to turn about and bolt back to safety. Among the lands given to Hugh was the Manor of Groby, including the area now known as Bradgate Park. Bradgate was part of the waste of Charnwood Forest. There were the same rocky outcrops we know today, more trees, heather and gorse, but less bracken. There were red and roe deer and big birds of prey such as buzzards, peregrines and eagles, but no fallow The medieval manor of Groby, on the southern fringe of Charnwood deer, no rabbits and no rats. There was Forest, extended from Botcheston, Newtown Unthank, Ratby and no village of Newtown Linford and no Groby (seen lower left in the picture above) in the south and west, over tillage, just rough grazing. Indeed there the Forest to Swithland (far distance right) in the north-east. From the was no village between Anstey and mid thirteenth century the manor was owned by the Ferrers family who Shepshed, except, maybe, small pioneer lived in a house on the site of the present Groby Old Hall. In the mid Scandinavian settlements at Charley fifteenth century it passed by marriage to the Greys. The villages of and Ulverscroft. Newtown Linford (middle left) and Bradgate (now lost, see page 14), Groby Manor stretched from existed as poor settlements in the waste of Charnwood with the original Botcheston, Newtown Unthank and hunting park of the Ferrers occupying particularly rocky and infertile Ratby in the south to Swithland in the ground (upper centre). The present park was begun by Thomas Grey east, encompassing Ulverscroft and (1451-1501) and completed by his son Thomas (1477-1530). Groby Bradgate. This area of Leicestershire Pool, noted in medieval times for the value of its fishing, can be seen held no particular interest to Hugh, and at the bottom right of the aerial photograph above. he may not even have visited it. 8 Rocks in Bradgate Bradgate contains some of the oldest and hardest rocks in Britain, and is an area of particular interest to geologists. Some of the rocks formed deep underground, as molten material which cooled and crystallized to make granites. Others began in water, as layers of sediment, still others from the settling dust and ash errupted from a volcano. The layers of sediment were later compressed into slaty rocks. What was once a high mountain range over Charnwood has eroded, exposing craggy cliffs. Bradgate’s granite is very hard, and occurs as massive blocks of stone. Examined closely, a mass of crystals can be seen, showing that it slowly solidified from molten magma deep underground. It forms the cliffs along the Little Matlock gorge, to Bradgate House, and Above: The large granite blocks of the Little Matlock gorge. continues up the hill as far as Tyburn and Bowling Green Plantation. Swithland Woods, but it also occurs between the Deer All the other stone is made up of various sorts of Barn and Hallgates. sedimentary rocks. Most of these are formed by layers Some of the most dramatic and geologically of sand, silt or clay building up and cementing together interesting rocks can be found just south of Old John. under water. They all show something of their original A line of craggy cliffs runs between the War Memorial layered forms, but have been subsequently changed by and.